Social media blitz aims to shed light on human trafficking

It’s Human Trafficking Awareness Month It’s Human Trafficking Awareness Month and a Sudbury group is bringing additional attention to the issue – including a new video.

The non-profit Angels of Hope Against Human Trafficking in Sudbury has just released a new video and is doing a social media blitz this month to highlight awareness and prevention of human trafficking.

"It's also important to understand that when things do happen how are we taking action," said Lynzy Lalande, project coordinator for Angels of Hope.

“What does that look like regarding taking action which is blameless and with compassion?”

The new video is called ‘I Survived.’

The group provides support to survivors of human trafficking and everyone involved has some form of lived experience.

"We wanted to share the video ‘I Survived’ so survivors feel more comfortable approaching our organization because we do have that lived experience component," said Cristina Scarpellini, the founder and executive director of Angels of Hope.

"And that we do have a lot of compassion and understanding because we, you know, we have been there. We have lived it ourselves whether it be through addiction, sexual violence or human trafficking."

January is human trafficking awareness month and Angels of Hope is doing a social media blitz to get people talking about it.

"Basically it's to have the conversation surrounding the issues and the growing crisis of human trafficking in northern Ontario," said Lalande.

Officials said addiction is such a prevalent factor in human trafficking.

"The correlation between addiction and trafficking is either the victim was addicted to some sort of substance prior to meeting their trafficker and that brought them into the lifestyle or their trafficker,” said Scarpellini.

“Or the trafficker gets them dependent on some sort of substance.”

Angels of Hope started in 2015. Officials said the group has helped more than 300 victims and their families.